Check Amsterdam Hotel Deals

citizenM hotel Amsterdam Airport Reviews

Citizen M airport is really close to the airport. And even though you have to walk 10-15 mins to go to the hotel from the airport, still it's a convenient walk. You allowed to put all your staff in the airport trolley and take the trolley to the hotel since you can park the trolley right in front of the hotel. So for you all who have a more than one suitcase/bag it's really are relieving. The hotel doesn't have reception table and your check in and check out is computerized. The room is controlled by one multi remote (for air conditioner, tv, lights, blinds). The room itself quite small with open bathroom but the bed is huge and comfortable. The tv has movies that you can watch for free. The telephone in the room is a voip telephone if I'm not wrong of remembering it, so you don't have to be afraid about the cost of calling home from your hotel room. If you need to eat, i don't really recommend you to eat downstairs, better if you walk to the airport and get some food there. And the staff, they are friendly, helpful, and nice. The hotel is very clean by the way, so no worries.

Because of the early flight, combined with the fact that Turkish Airlines does not offer online check-in at Schiphol I had decided to take the train from Eindhoven and stay in a hotel at the airport. But, instead of sleeping at the Van Der Valk again (which offers nice 'park and fly' arrangements), I opted for a somewhat different approach this time. I'd read some nice things about the CitizenM hotel and it seems like a cool place to spend the night (besides being right next to the departure hall). I had booked (and paid) online several months ago, which results in the lowest fee (in my case 83.47 Euro for a 2 person room; they charge per room, not per person).

Arriving at Schiphol and walking to the CitizenM might give you the wrong impression. It looks like a big, unappealing block just thrown down in a random place. But looks are deceiving. As soon as you enter the place it just oozes trendiness. There's 6 terminals you can use to check in and a staff member if you need any assistance.

The room card can be kept as a luggage tag and is charged by holding it against the terminal. When you open the room you are welcomed by a narrow, bright space. Sure, it's narrow, but that's also part of the fun. The toilet and shower are in the center of the room, both in closeable cylinders equipped with mood lights (lights that can be changed into different colors, according to your mood). There's also a separate sink. At the end of the room, spanning the full width, is a kingsize bed, behind which the blinds and roll-down screen are located. Storage space can be found in a drawer underneath the bed and there's a space to hang your coat and some clothes. Above the bed a flatscreen TV is located and the bed can also be used as big lounge sofa, while watching TV. There's a turnable mirror with blow dryer, various types of electricity sockets and extra bright lights. The rooms also have a safe to store your valuables.

After being baffled by the trendiness of the design for a while you'll discover the Moodpad. This is a remote that controls lots of things in the room. You can open and close the blinds, roll down the window screen, turn the lights on and off, program your wake up alarm, control the temperature of the room and operate the TV. The Moodpad also allows you to change the colors of the lights in the shower and toilet cylinders and there's a number of pre-defined mood settings for the light (business, romance, etc). The TV will give you instructions on how to operate the Moodpad, but it looked like I had a different model, since I was unable to locate the pop-up menu with mood settings for certain activities (arriving, sleeping, watching TV, etc). The TV screen also enables you to choose from a number of music channels with different types of music (lounge, pop, jazz, etc), watch a large number of TV channels and a large number of scheduled and on-demand movies (relatively recent and for free!), play games, listen to webradio stations and read RSS news feeds. There's free WiFi Internet and every room comes with a mascot/cuddly toy. In my case my roommate was Malik, the 'party citizen'. Seemed like he'd done a bit too much partying since he looked rather Frankensteinish to me. If you like them, they are available for purchase. I personally was glad I could not take any access luggage, if you know what I mean. ;-)

But there's more. There's a lot of funny details and sense of humor in the signing and messages around this hotel, as well as a clip on the TV that popped-up when I pressed a certain button on the Moodpad. These details range from the packaging of the soap ('Designed to turn even the longest-haul traveller into a sparkling clean and nice-smelling human being again') to the doorknob ('Welcome home') and the 'do not disturb' hanger ('don't come in, there's somebody naked in here') and even the quotes that can be read on some of the doors. This place is almost a museum and makes you want to explore, which is exactly what I did after I had experimented with the room settings for a while.

The ground floor has a bar with coffee, tea, beer and spirits at (for hotel rates) quite reasonable prices (I paid 5,50 Euro per pint of larger). They also have sushi and sandwiches and other kinds of snacks. There's also a corner with some Mac computers which you can use freely and many sections with couches and seats that range from cozy to trendy but uncomfy. Still, the whole surrounding creates a sort of a living room feeling, not the least because of the big bookcases with TVs that dominate some of these areas.

All in all a highly recommended hotel to stay in. It's no wonder they have won many prices for innovation and design. It's a place that turns travel accommodation into an adventure instead of a a necessary evil.

Signing off - Citizen 147

P.S. They also responded very quickly to my CitizenM hashtagged message on Twitter!

CitizenM Schipol Airport is very convenient for a late layover in Amsterdam or a business trip to one of the offices in the World Trade Centre (Schipol WTC office not city centre) across the street. With carry on luggage you’ll be from arrival gate to the hotel check in within 20 minutes.

The hotel offers basic amenities in the lobby and a 24 hour café with some drinks and food. There are many sitting areas with TV’s, sofas and a few Macs to surf the web with. Everything is modern and trendy looking with the red colour theme running throughout the building.

Check in is automated with touch screens and issues you a key card making the process as simple as possible with 6 terminals and no waiting. Once to your room the experience really begins. The room is setup as an all in one pod style room with the bed at one end and the toilet and shower in the middle encircled with glass doors. You can see from the photos this is a very cool concept (especially if you’re there alone). Might be a bit funny if sharing the room!

The Philips mood dock controls the light colour, temperature, TV remote and the window blinds which is conceptually very good. In practice there are small issues with the remote and dealing with the blinds got a bit tricky. The hotel offers free WiFi, but the signal has been weak and dodgy both times I was there, although the macs in the lobby would be fine.

The flat screen TV has 60 channels in various languages and a selection of new release movies on demand all included in your cost! The breakfast option in the morning is a coffee, juice, croissant and yogurt/muesli which is just what I wanted.

The price of this hotel is easily half what you’d pay for the Sheraton or Hilton across the street making it much more practical and the amenities give you everything you need. You won’t want to spend a week here but for a night or two it is perfect.

Located right at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, this hotel is a gem! I've stayed there twice now and OMG, I love this hotel! It's hip, modern, funky, and just an awesome deal for the price!

Start by checking yourself in on the monitors and printing your own room key (which doubles later as a cool luggage tag). The rooms are more like pods - they have crazy mood lighting that can be changed from your remote which controls the flat screen TV on the wall, the lights, the blinds, and even set your wake up call - the counting sheep option is rather fun!

The shower and toilet are separate pods in the room where the mood lighting is displayed. Free wifi is a nice bonus.

Downstairs there is a food area that has some sushi, sandwiches, fruits, ice creams, etc. Bar items available as well. The last time we stayed there before my flight, we brought wine, cheeses, meats, etc and had an indoor picnic in one of the common areas which a flat screen TV which we pretty much had to ourselves the whole evening.

Rooms are usually less than $100 USD which is an awesome deal, considering how nice the rooms are. But that is their primary goal - to provide luxury accomdations for reasonable rates. There is another CitizenM about to open in the center of Amsterdam itself and another one in Glasgow, slated to open later in 2009. Other ones are in the works for larger cities in Europe for 2010 and 2011. Once they complete their European rollout, they have plans to expand worldwide. I hope they do as I would definitely consider this as option #1 in any city they build one.